Aside from the usual asian+camera+tourist stereotypical jokes, I make it a point to have a camera with me most of the time. My current phone, a Blackberry, doesn’t have a camera so I rely on a small, 5 megapixel Sony camera for quick shots and other times when I either don’t have or don’t want to haul out one of my “big” cameras.
A few years ago, Kevin saw a car in a local Wal-Mart parking lot that instead of a front bumper, it had a board attached to the front, with the grille and headlights screwed into it. It was probably the most redneck thing he had seen in addition to being insanely funny. The sad thing is that he didn’t get a chance to take a picture to share…
I had to pick up something at my local Office Depot this afternoon. When I parked, I noticed something unusual about the car parked across from me. This isn’t quite the same caliber of the wood bumper but it’s definitely a contender. And the good thing is - I have a picture. Heh.
We rocked the R.E.M. tune “Losing my Religion” in church this morning. As much crap as Kevin received this week over his new MAN-dolin, it really was the key to covering the song right. It all came together and sounded really good. We were actually kind of surprised at the rousing clapping and hollerin’ at the end but I won’t deny that was really nice. It’s not about us of course but it’s cool to see people digging things.
Dave did a super job on the message. The other thing is that our stage crews and designers did a REDONKULOUS job putting together a beach theme. We had a grass skirt around the stage, tiki torches flickering, totem poles on stage as well as palm trees, real surfboards (a feat in north Alabama I’ll tell ya), leis, and a beached-out VW bug in front of the theater. We should have some pictures up from the day soon and if I don’t post them here, I’ll at least get a link to where you can see them.
*update - thanks to Jonathan Clifton, we have video now!
Last Monday evening, me and few of the folks from our band played at Rhodes Ferry Park as part of the city’s “Concerts in the Park” series. Despite the sweltering humidity, there was a good crowd of several hundred people there. Several friends made it out along with plenty from church. We don’t play a simplified setup very often at the theater, so it was nice for me to be able to just have one drum to play and one mic to connect instead of my BIG kit. It was a fun time for all of us - Brent on bass, me on the djembe, Kevin with his acoustic guitar, Amber rockin’ vocals and Jack “Randy Rhodes” Spooner on his electric guitar. We wrapped up the evening having dinner with a small group at Maria Bonita. Good times.
I really think that 3 days is the PERFECT length for a weekend - at least for me. On a typical weekend, I’ll spend Saturday mowing the lawn, doing laundry and cleaning up the house. I might even squeeze in a carwash. If I’ve worked on any photo projects, I’ll try to get some work done on those as well. All in all, Saturday is really a work day for me, just not at the office. Sunday starts early - 6:00am. That’s the same time I get up during the week so it’s not something that I struggle with. Why so early? On the Sunday’s I’m playing (which is every one for the last several weeks) I need to be at the theater to start setting up my drums at 7:30. By the time I make breakfast, shower, find something to wear then load the car with what I’m bringing, the 90 mins between 6:00-7:30 is all used up. After church is over, I usually eat with friends then make it home around 1:30 or 2. It’s either nap time or time to watch a race on the tube (and THEN take a nap). Probably dinner again with friends before wrapping up the day and hitting the sack. That’s how I burn up a normal weekend. Having that additional day on a 3-day weekend lets me spread Saturday’s stuff out over 2 days or just completely doing NOTHING for one day. The latter won out this weekend. Friday was my total do-nothing day. I grilled out with friends that evening, but that definitely doesn’t fall into any kind of “work” classification.
As a side note from Friday, I started mariniating the steaks I would be grilling around noon Thursday with some honey terriyaki marinade. By the time I put them on the grill, they had been soaking for more than 24 hours. They tasted GREAT.
I think I’m just gonna sit here and think about how good those were.
I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!
A Cessna 172 to be exact. After a week or two of trying to figure out what would work best for me to shoot aerial photos out of, the Cessna won out. The other options were a helicopter or a Cirrus SR22. The helicopter would have been the best option, but things didn’t come together to make that happen. The Cirrus - although the sexiest of the bunch by FAR, was too fast and also had the additional handicap of the low wing. Shooting out of that aircraft would require a steep bank for me to be able to see the ground clearly without the wing in the way. The Cessna was a high-wing craft which only had a small, thin strut underneath it’s high wing that was easy to shoot around. It’s low stall speed of 59 knots increased the chances of getting some sharply focused shots. There was some haze in the air that I was hoping to reduce with my polarizer but the light angles weren’t really coming in at a direction where it would have been much benefit. After an uneventful flight (the best kind) and getting the photos I needed, I was offered control of the plane. Back in the day, I used to play around with Microsoft’s Flight Simulator. As funny as that sounds, it really helped. As a matter of fact, this particular Cessna model I was in was one of the first ones replicated in the simulator. Aside from the navigation (which I never really thought too much about in the sim), the mechanics of flight were pretty straightforward. After adjusting the trim via a wheel in the center of the dash, pushing the wheel forward made you go down while pulling back made you climb. Turning the wheel banked you left and right. The pilot kept control of the rudder so I wouldn’t have too much to do and think about all at once. After about 10 minutes of turning and going to different altitudes, it was time to land. The pilot took back over and got us back on the ground smoothly. A few years ago, I had toyed with the idea of taking flying lessons. It might be time to put that on the front burner.
When is heat and humidity not a bad thing? When you’re on the beach - that’s where. Megan and I spent the last few days in Singer Island, FL - just off of West Palm Beach. It was nice to get away for awhile for sure. I didn’t bring a laptop. I didn’t bring either of my “big” cameras. Technology-wise, I just brought my Blackberry, pocket camera and my TomTom so we could find our way around down there. Oh, I did have my iPod too, but that was pretty much the extent of my “stuff” that I brought along. Megan just brought her cellphone also. She too is hard to separate from her laptop so it was a nice break for her also.
The place we stayed at was fantastic… there are nice places and then there are NICE places. This was a NICE place. I’ll post more about that later.
A lot of laying around, good food, good drinks and more laying around was all there was to do - and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think Megan’s figured out just how banannas I am and hasn’t been scared off… We also discovered her favorite place to hang out - Meganland. She was there quite often. Hehe! I can’t really say I didn’t have moments of my own though. The best was when I was fooling around with the in-room safe. In a nutshell, with the safe open, you pressed a reset button and then entered in the 4-digit code you wanted to use to unlock it then you shut the door with your stuff inside. Easy huh? Somehow, I managed to lock my stuff inside and wasn’t able to unlock it… neither was the resort’s security. An hour later, 2 security guards and several phone calls to the safe’s vendor - they got it open.
Last night I headed to Monaco Pictures to see “Ironman” on opening night. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the movie was. Robert Downey Jr. did a great job of playing Tony Stark - a weapons designer whose company, Stark Industries, was a dominant if not THE dominant player in the weapons market. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone that wants to go see it, but let me just say that I thought the movie was fun and the special effects and CGI just amazing.
While I was off at the movies, Megan and Livvie were enjoying High School Musical on Ice. We all got back together afterwards and had a nice dinner at Dolce. While the food there is really good… it’s a little on the spendy side. Also important to note is that the menu is not what I would consider “kid-friendly”. Remember when you were a kid and you went to a restaurant and there were no burgers and fries, just all this stuff with weird names and vegetables you didn’t like? It’s like that.
By all accounts, this weekend had been predicted by the local meteorologists to be a total washout. With that in mind, I went ahead and mowed my lawn Thursday night. It’s Sunday night now and all we’ve gotten is a sprinkling so far. So much for that.
LOST got cranked up again this week with a new episode and BOY was it a doozy! It was an action-packed one to say the least. For me it was one jaw-dropping event after another. Any of you guys LOST fans?
Since the rain held off, I finally went to battle against the holly bush hedges in front of my porch. Those beasties get a little out of hand if left alone too long. Luckily, I think it was last year I picked up an electric hedge trimmer that made the job of manicuring them less of an ordeal than with hand clippers. I got done with one set but need to turn my attention to the shrubs beside my house before I can check that off my list as “done”.
I took a short break in the afternoon before going to dinner with Megan, Livvie, Jessica and Mark. We met up at Macaroni Grill and had a delicious dinner. I tried a different wine this go around as they no longer carried the Kendall-Jackson chardonnay that I’m so fond of. Instead, they had the brand “Toasted Head” that turned out to be pretty good so I really had no complaints. After dinner, we headed to a local bowling alley for a game. That was a nice way to end the evening.
Today was Mario Kart for the Wii day! I picked up my copy after church as well as 2 extra steering wheels (for total of 3). For some reason I thought I had 3 Wii-motes. I went back and got a third when I discovered my mistake. Played that most of the afternoon. In my downtime, I watched the F1 race - they were in Spain this weekend. Ferrari is starting to look pretty strong after a bumpy start to the season. BMW is looking good too.
That wraps up the last few days… Oh, I mentioned I shot a wedding a week or so ago. Here’s one shot from that event:
Last Saturday, I took Megan and Livvie down to Barber Motorsports Park with me to attend the AMA Superbike race. It’s such a great facility - it’s like a country club but instead of a golf course, there’s a road course. I had been there a few years earlier for a Rolex Porsche Cup event and knew what to expect. Normally I don’t follow motorcycle events but I wanted to try my hand at photographing one for fun. I used my Canon 5D although in retrospect, my 20D may have been a better choice with it’s higher frame rate and cropped sensor. Despite the camera choice, I made the best of the situation. The high pixel count of the 5D made extreme enlargements possible though so that could outweigh the speed advantage of the other camera.
I recognized a few of the front runner’s names but don’t follow this sport enough to know who is who on the track without a list of racer numbers in hand. Matt Mladin, Miguel Duhamel, Ben Spies and Tommy Hayden were the ones I knew of. The others I’d have to read up on. I didn’t know who rode for which team or who their sponsors were so I was just a noobie with a camera in the crowd - LOL!
I’ll post more pics from Saturday as soon as I get some time to sort through them. I got several keepers but PLENTY of discards. I also ran into my friend Nicole there. She was there with Honda doing grid-girl duties.
